AIMBE
Fellowbook News
AIMBE Fellowbook collects news stories highlighting the members of the AIMBE College of Fellows. Read the latest stories, jump to the College Directory, or search below to find the newest research, awards, announcements and more for the leaders of the medical and biological engineering community.
Mark Redfern Named Pitt’s New Vice Provost for Research
Mark Redfern | Via University of Pittsburgh | August 14, 2012Mark Redfern, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor and associate dean for research in the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, will become the University’s new vice provost for research, effective Sept. 1, 2012, Pitt Provost Patricia E. Beeson has announced. Redfern, who holds Pitt secondary appointments in otolaryngology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy, […]
Hybrid Medical Imaging Technology May Shed New Light on Cancer
Qifa Zhou | Via University of Southern California News | August 13, 2012Scientists from USC and Washington University in St. Louis have developed a new type of medical imaging that gives doctors a fresh look at live internal organs. The technology combines two existing forms of medical imaging — photoacoustic and ultrasound — and uses them to generate a high-contrast, high-resolution combined image that could help doctors […]
“Theranostic’ Imaging Offers Means of Killing Prostate Cancer Cells Without Harming Other Healthy Cells
Zaver Bhujwalla | Via Johns Hopkins Medicine | August 8, 2012Experimenting with human prostate cancer cells and mice, cancer imaging experts at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a method for finding and killing malignant cells while sparing healthy ones. The method, called theranostic imaging, targets and tracks potent drug therapies directly and only to cancer cells. It relies on binding an originally inactive form […]
Composite Nanofibers Developed by Penn Scientists Next Chapter in Orthopaedic Biomaterials
Robert L. Mauck | Via Penn Medicine | August 7, 2012Bioengineered replacements for tendons, ligaments, the meniscus of the knee, and other tissues require re-creation of the exquisite architecture of these tissues in three dimensions. These fibrous, collagen-based tissues located throughout the body have an ordered structure that gives them their robust ability to bear extreme mechanical loading. Many labs have been designing treatments for […]
Bacteria Employ ‘Quality-Control’ Machinery, Say Biomolecular Engineers
Matthew P. DeLisa | Via Cornell Chronicle | August 2, 2012Like quality-control managers in factories, bacteria possess built-in machinery that track the shape and quality of proteins trying to pass through their cytoplasmic membranes, Cornell biomolecular engineers have shown. This quality-control mechanism is found in the machinery of the twin-arginine translocation (TAT) pathway, which is a protein export pathway in plants, bacteria and archaea (single-celled […]
New Composite Material May Restore Damaged Soft Tissue
Jennifer Elisseeff | Via John Hopkins Medicine | August 1, 2012Potential uses include facial reconstruction for soldiers’ blast injuries Biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins have developed a new liquid material that in early experiments in rats and humans shows promise in restoring damaged soft tissue relatively safely and durably. The material, a composite of biological and synthetic molecules, is injected under the skin, then “set” […]
Hanes Discusses Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
Justin Hanes | Via Johns Hopkins CCNE | July 27, 2012“Would you poison the entire garden to kill one weed?” asked Justin Hanes at the opening of his talk at the 2012 Johns Hopkins annual NanoBio Symposium. “Unfortunately, that is how most chemotherapy works today.” Hanes is a professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an affiliated faculty member of the Institute […]
Building Organs, On One Microchip At A Time
Donald Ingber | Via NPR | July 27, 2012Bioengineers are developing microchips, about the size of a thumb, that can behave like human organs. Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, discusses how the “organ-on-a-chip” works and why the technology could replace the animal model for drug testing.
Tumor Cells Change When Put into a ‘Tight Spot’
Konstantinos Konstantopoulos | Via John Hopkins University | July 27, 2012“Cell migration represents a key aspect of cancer metastasis,” said Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Konstantopoulos was among the invited faculty speakers for the 2012 NanoBio Symposium. Cancer metastasis, the migration of cancer cells from a primary tumor to other parts of the […]
Rensselaer Professor Steven Cramer Elected Fellow of American Chemical Society
Steven Cramer | Via Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | July 26, 2012Bioseparations and bioprocessing expert Steven Cramer, the William Weightman Walker Professor of Polymer Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, this week was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The ACS recognized Cramer for excellence in leadership, volunteer service, and for “outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and the society.” “The […]
Bioengineers Get NIH Award for On-Chip Models of Human Heart and Liver
Kevin Healy | Via UC Berkeley Engineering | July 24, 2012Bioengineering professors Kevin Healy and Luke Lee and collaborators have been awarded a two-year, $1.7 million boost to develop on-chip models of living human heart and liver tissue from the NIH. The grant is part of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program, an initiative to help predict the safety of drugs more quickly and […]
New U-M Joint Biomedical Engineering Department Holds Promise for Better Health Care Technologies
Douglas Noll | Via University of Michigan | July 19, 2012In an effort to develop more technologies that improve health care, the University of Michigan will establish a joint Department of Biomedical Engineering with footholds in its top-ranked College of Engineering and Medical School, in an action approved by the U-M Board of Regents at its July meeting. The change takes effect Sept. 1, 2012. […]
Nanoscale Scaffolds and Stem Cells Show Promise in Cartilage Repair
Jennifer Elisseeff | Via John Hopkins Medicine | July 17, 2012Johns Hopkins tissue engineers have used tiny, artificial fiber scaffolds thousands of times smaller than a human hair to help coax stem cells into developing into cartilage, the shock-absorbing lining of elbows and knees that often wears thin from injury or age. Reporting online June 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, […]
Rice to Partner with Coursera to Offer Free Online Courses
Vicki Colvin | Via Rice University | July 17, 2012Rice University will offer five online courses free to people around the world as a new partner with the California-based enterprise Coursera.
Stony Brook Study Shows Ultrasound Triggers Bone Cell Mobility
Yi-Xian Qin | Via Stony Brook Medicine | July 17, 2012Research led by Yi-Xian Qin, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Director of the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory at Stony Brook University, demonstrated that the use of medium-intensity focused ultrasound on osteoblasts, known as bone-forming cells, stimulates the mobility of the cells and triggers calcium release, a process that promotes growth. The technique could […]
Kenan Institute Appoints Joseph DeSimone as New Director
Joseph DeSimone | Via UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School | July 16, 2012The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise has appointed Joseph M. DeSimone as its new director. DeSimone is the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at UNC and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at NC State University and of Chemistry at UNC. He replaces […]
Ferrara and Cherry Receive RISE Awards
Katherine Ferrara | Via UC Davis Biomedical Engineering | July 16, 2012UC Davis Biomedical Engineering professors Katherine Ferrara and Simon Cherry have received funding through the Office of Research’s “Research Investments in the Sciences and Engineering (RISE)” program. RISE is a new program to support interdisciplinary research at UC Davis that will lead to new knowledge and technologies that will attract large-scale funding from federal, state, […]
Duke to Offer Free Courses on Internet
Roger Barr | Via Duke Today | July 16, 2012Duke University will begin offering courses free on the Internet, school officials said Tuesday. Doing so will extend Duke’s expertise to a broader global audience while using technology to enhance the classroom experience for its students on campus, officials added. Duke will accomplish this through a partnership with Coursera, a California-based education company that provides […]
Clemson University Spinoff Company to Commercialize Advanced Genetic Technology
Guigen Zhang | Via Clemson University Newsstand | July 10, 2012A new company emerging from Clemson University research aims to commercialize innovative genetic sensing technology, according to the university Research Foundation. Tiger Bioanalytics, led by Guigen Zhang of Clemson University, is developing a cost-effective way to more accurately conduct gene sequencing. The goal is to sequence a whole genome using DNA from a single cell […]
Harvard’s Wyss Institute Develops Novel Nanotherapeutic that Delivers Clot-Busting Drugs Directly to Obstructed Blood Vessels
Donald Ingber | Via Wyss Institute | July 5, 2012Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a novel biomimetic strategy that delivers life-saving nanotherapeutics directly to obstructed blood vessels, dissolving blood clots before they cause serious damage or even death. This new approach enables thrombus dissolution while using only a fraction of the drug dose normally required, […]